An Island in Revolt: A Window into Europe's Future

One could be justified for being perplexed about Pope Francis's choice of Lampedusa, a tiny island off the coast of Sicily and Italy's — indeed Europe's — southernmost tip, as the destination of his very first official visit, which took place on July 8. Not a world capital, not a place in some important geopolitical region of the globe.

What is significant, even symbolic, about Lampedusa is its geography: The small island, with a population of 5,000, is positioned in the middle of the Mediterranean, making it close to the Muslim world, even closer to Tunisia than Sicily.

These two conditions explain what's been happening to Lampedusa for over a decade, and how it could be a miniature model of the whole of Europe in the not-too-distant future.